Posted on 10/13/2006 7:22:58 AM PDT by Señor Zorro
Microsoft has released licenses for the Windows Vista operating system that dramatically differ from those for Windows XP in that they limit the number of times that retail editions can be transferred to another device and ban the two least-expensive versions from running in a virtual machine.
The new licenses, which were highlighted by the Vista team on its official blog Tuesday, add new restrictions to how and where Windows can be used.
"The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time. If you reassign the license, that other device becomes the "licensed device," reads the license for Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, and Business. In other words, once a retail copy of Vista is installed on a PC, it can be moved to another system only once.
The new policy is narrower than Windows XP's. In the same section, the license for Windows XP Home states: "You may move the Software to a different Workstation Computer. After the transfer, you must completely remove the Software from the former Workstation Computer." There is no limit to the number of times users can make this move. Windows XP Professional's license is identical.
Elsewhere in the license, Microsoft forbids users from installing Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium in a virtual machine. "You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system," the legal language reads. Vista Ultimate and Vista Business, however, can be installed within a VM.
Vista Home Basic, at $199 for a full version and $99 for an upgrade, and Vista Home Premium ($239/$159), are the two most-affordable retail editions of the operating system scheduled to appear on store shelves in January 2007.
Although the Vista team's blog did not point out these changes, it did highlight others. "Two notable changes between Windows Vista license terms and those for Windows XP are: 1) failure of a validation check results in the loss of access to specific features; and 2) an increase in our warranty period from 90 days to 1 year, which brings Windows in line with most other Microsoft products," wrote Vista program manager Nick White.
Specifically, the Vista license calls out the ramifications of a failed validation check of Vista.
"The software will from time to time validate the software, update or require download of the validation feature of the software," it reads. "If after a validation check, the software is found not to be properly licensed, the functionality of the software may be affected."
Vista's new anti-piracy technologies, collectively dubbed "Software Protection Platform," have met with skepticism by analysts and criticism by users. Under the new program, a copy of Vista that's judged to be in violation of its license, or is counterfeit, is disabled after a set period, leaving the user access only to the default Web browser, and then only for an hour at a time.
Well at least they didn't shut it down completely, and leave the users totally abandoned like Red Hat did with "Red Hat Linux". ALL support was pulled in like what, 5 months? Meanwhileou can still get Solaris x86 today, and for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile you can still get Solaris x86 today, and for the foreseeable future.
I think you meant "compiler". The one put out by that greenie Stallman, right?
They will if they obey copyright laws. X-Copy was pulled from store shelves by court order.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Can't be said enough, considering how controversial your original claim appeared.
Awhile back I used to see Red Hat all the time (before they changed thier business model, most recently I have seen Suse.. (http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/22045/)
Must suck being forced to use something you hate. Might explain your attitude.
GUI's are important technology. Ask Novell back then. Ask Linux now.
Redhat did not 'completely abandon' their users, though they did piss off many of them (including me). After a few months of using fedora and seeing the model they put forth work I am now just fine with it. For people who wanted to stay with RHEL on non critical systems the cost is as little as 60$ a year.
Not for a minute. Unfortunately, some key software for our business runs on PC's only. It is very very regrettable.
There are two problems with MS. One - their software is completely counter-intuitive. I should not be sent across the internet to look up a usermanual to do what seems like the obvious next task except that I cannot figure out which of their various menu submenus the important task might be filed under. Two - they started off with no clear distinction between what is OS and what is application. Even in XP I get the occasional software glitch that crashes the machine. There is no excuse for THAT! None.
Apple costs more, and while it may be worth it, I don't see your point.
Guess again.
Great site that place. So Microsoft may be the first to offer a fully converged home entertainment system, with built in copyright protection? We'll see, but I'm sure many will be interested, especially the content providers. The option to learn the tech and do it yourself will always remain.
It wasn't a guess. With ~90% of all systems running windows, the chances the largest groups are something else would almost be statistically impossible.
Possibly a hook, rather than a service. I would use the XP rollback feature and restore the OS to an older time when it worked.
Well, it's rare that I get a glitch that brings down the machine, but there are some fundamental problems with Microsoft software:
1) They've completely lost control of the code, due to poor design. Three hundred developers will all do the same thing 300 different ways because nobody bothers to take a "God's Eye View" of what's going on. (Allchin attempted to remedy this in Vista and Office 2007, we'll see how that works out, although the reports are promising.)
2) Buffer overruns (most prevalent security problem). For all the "talent" they claim to hire, why they omit the checking that is taught in Computer Science 1 is just beyond me.
Those endlessly transferring between hardware might. Those that don't, will stick with Microsoft or Apple, whatever they bought originally with the hardware.
That's funny, since Microsoft's original claim to fame was a GUI that offered a consistency between apps which had rarely been seen by anyone other than Apple, and still is as good as anyone. It's even funnier if you're claiming a command line like the one needed with every other versions of *nix is in any way intuitive.
Two - they started off with no clear distinction between what is OS and what is application.
I will agree with this, tying the browser into the kernel was one of the most idiotic decisions an O/S vendor ever made, if not hands down the most idiotic. But I hear they're changing that with Vista, so, good job, finally.
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